By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With the NBA’s 75th anniversary underway this season, the time has come to remind everybody of the first NBA game which was played on November 1st, 1946.
The match was played at the Maple Leaf Garden in Toronto as the New York Knicks got the win over the Huskies with 68-66 on the scoreboard. It was the only game on the schedule that day in an 11-team league.
It was a 48-minute-long match with four quarters of 12 minutes, the same as today, but there wasn’t a shot clock yet as that rule was introduced almost a decade later.
The Knicks were the first team to score and the first basket in NBA history belonged to Ossie Schectman who made a layup early on. Ed Sadowski, who served as both the head coach and a player for Toronto, scored game-high 18 points.
The opening game was played in front of 7,090 people and any fan taller than 6-8 Huskies center George Nostrand was allowed free entrance as part of the promotion. The tickets cost from 75 cents to 2.5 dollars.
The Italian-born Hank Biasatti was the first international player to step on the NBA court. He played for the Huskies and was one of the five international players on opening-night rosters. Biasatii was also a pitcher in Major League Baseball.
New York went on to a 33-27 record and the playoffs while the Huskies failed to advance (22-38) in their first and only NBA season. The Philadelphia Warriors won the inaugural championship.
The Knicks, together with the Boston Celtics and the Warriors, are the only three franchises to have played in every NBA season to date.
The Knicks and the Raptors will clash on November 1st in New York for the 75th anniversary of the game.